Rig 2D Sprites & Animate with the Skeleton Editor
Turn a static sprite into an animated character for free: fit a skeleton by clicking its joints, apply a walk, run or jump preset, and export a sprite sheet.
The Skeleton Editor is a free tool for rigging a 2D sprite with bones and animating it by posing them, the cut-out technique many modern 2D games use. Instead of drawing every frame, you build one rig and reuse it for walk, run, jump and more. You place the joints yourself; it costs no credits.
Frame-by-frame or rigging?
Frame-by-frame animation draws each pose separately. It suits chunky pixel art but is slow to change. Skeletal animation binds the character to a bone hierarchy and animates by rotating the bones over time. One rig gives you many smooth animations, and a fix to the rig carries into all of them.
Step 1: Load your sprite
Open the Skeleton Editor and click Upload a sprite, or From my assets if you're signed in. A clear, full-body character works best. For a side view, a T-pose (arms out) lets both arms and legs move freely; the image generator's T-Pose option makes one.
Step 2: Fit the skeleton
Pick Humanoid or Quadruped, then click each joint the editor asks for. For a humanoid that's the top of the head, hips, shoulders, elbows, hands, knees and feet; for a quadruped the head, shoulders, hips, a front and back leg and the tail tip. The bones are built to fit, and the image is bound to them so it bends at the joints. To move a joint later, use Edit joints.
Step 3: Apply a preset
Click a preset: Idle, Walk, Run, Jump, Punch or Die. It plays on your rig straight away. Presets work for front and side views: a character facing you steps toward the camera, and a side-on one strides.
Step 4: Tweak
Select a bone and key your own changes on the timeline, or adjust the joints if a limb bends in the wrong place. The rig settings control how softly limbs bend and how much they pull on the body.
Step 5: Export
Click Export sprites to download every frame of the animation as one transparent sprite sheet PNG.
When to rig
Rigging suits higher-resolution art you'll keep adding actions to. For tiny pixel sprites, or moves a flat rig can't show (such as turning around), use the AI animations in the image editor instead.